I. Sacrament of Baptism & Confirmation

Sacrament

According to St. Augustine: “an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace”

sacramentum tantum or the sign itself

• concrete-like bread and wine, and the words of consecration in the Eucharist, or water in baptism

Res et Sacramentum, or what it signifies

• literally the “thing” or the reality, and the sign; signified in the eucharist is the real presence of Christ; what is signified in baptism is the baptismal seal or character, that indelible mark of God

Res tantum or the reality alone

• The spiritual effect, grace.

• In the Eucharist, this is God’s grace and further incorporation in the Body of Christ.

• Just as one loaf is made of many grains, we, the many, gathered at the Eucharist, become one body in Christ.

• In baptism, the spiritual effect is the forgiveness of sins and entry into the body of Christ.

St. Thomas Aquinas

who defines the sacrament was an efficacious symbol

A sensible sign

• sacraments depend on signs and symbols which signify a sacred reality

• Sensible sign: it is smth perceived by the senses

Matter

• external thing or action

• eg: water

Form

• formula of words

• eg: “I baptize you”

A sensible sign

• The seven sacraments are signs and instruments through which the Holy Spirit distributes the grace of Christ, who is the head, throughout the Church, which is His Body.

• The Church, therefore, both contains and communicates the invisible grace that she signifies. It is in this analogical sense that the Church is called a sacrament.

Instituted by Christ

• Jesus, in His humanity, is the sacrament of God’s saving love for all. The Church is the sacrament of Jesus, and the seven ritual sacraments are the sacraments of the Church.

• If we understand Christ as the first and most important sacrament, then we recognize that the sacraments are always actions of Christ. They are rooted in experiences in the New Testament where Christ uses specific symbolic actions (words, gestures, signs) as visible signs of the life he brings. 

who is the primordial sacrament

Jesus: sacrament of the Father

who is the Foundational/Basic sacrament

Church: Sacrament of Jesus

To Give Grace

• The church has always taught that the sacraments give grace ex opere operato.

  • This means that any lack of holiness on the part of the minister does not prevent grace from being offered

• Christ himself acts through his spirit when the sacraments are celebrated properly

1. To draw us into closer relationship to the church

2. to draw us into a closer relationship to Christ himself, in the spirit and to the Father:

The Effect Of The Sacraments Is 2-Fold

To Give Grace

• all the sacraments have their special graces they all manifest the different ways christ comes to us, meeting us all.

• it is principally through the sacraments that we obtain the grace of God

• they are channel bys which grace enter our souls, to give them divine life and to nourish them

What Does The Sacrament Do?

They Celebrate The Paschal Mystery

It Demonstrates In The Present That Jesus Lives

It Prefigures Our Glorious Future With Christ At The End Of Time

They Celebrate The Paschal Mystery

1. each sacrament recalls the saving deeds of Jesus. 

2. in this way sacraments keep us in touch with our christian heritage

It Demonstrates In The Present That Jesus Lives

The sacraments bring about an actual meeting with Jesus through signs

It Prefigures Our Glorious Future With Christ At The End Of Time

this point to this day in the future and because of the power of jesus and spirit they help accomplish the union

Purpose of the Sacraments

• to sanctify men & women

• to build u the body of christ

• to give worship to god

  • sacrament, in short, is “a saving symbolic act or visible sign that originates from the ministry of Christ and is carried on in, by, and for the Church. When received in faith, it transforms us into the likeness of Christ in His Paschal Mystery, through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Sacrament of baptism

• “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

Holy Baptism:

• the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in spirit, and the door which gives access to other sacraments

•  the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word.

Sacrament of Baptism

• We can receive the sacrament of baptism ONCE 

• Those who can receive the sacrament are:

  • “every person not yet baptized, and only such a person can be baptized:

  • through Infant baptism  or Adult Baptism

Baptism: Matter

• the action with water (pouring of water or immersion)

Baptism: Form

• “i baptize you in the name of the father, and the son, and of the holy spirit.”

Baptism: Minister

• Ordinary Minister

• Extraordinary Minister

extraOrdinary Minister

• In case of necessity, any person, even someone not baptized, can baptize if he has the required intention

Effects Of Baptism

• Forgiveness of original sin and all personal sins

• birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive son of the father

• becoming a part of Christ’s mystical body

Effects Of Baptism

• becoming a temple of the HS

• incorporation into the church

• made a sharer in the priesthood of christ

  • baptism imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual sign, the character, which consecrates the baptized person for christian world.

Sacrament of Confirmation

• "Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit"

Sacrament of Confirmation

• aka Chrismation (in the eastern churches: anointing with holy myronor chrism) because the essential rite of the sacrament is anointing with chrism

Sacrament of Confirmation

• It's called confirmation bcs it confirms and strengthens baptismal grace

• By the sacrament of confirmation, the baptized are more perfectly bound to the church and are enriched w/ a special strength of the HS.

• We can only receive this sacrament ONCE

• Those who can receive the sacrament are:

  • every baptized person not yet confirmed can and should receive the sacrament

  • to receive confirmation one must be in a state of grace

  • one should receive the sacrament of penance to be cleansed for the gift of the HS.

Confirmation: Matter

• the anointing of the forehead with chrism

Confirmation: Form

“be sealed with the gifts of the Holy spirt.”

Confirmation: Minister

• Ordinary Minister

  • The ordinary minister of confirmation is the bishop

• Extraordinary minister

  • Priest

Effects of Confirmation

• the effect is a special outpouring of the HS like that of a Pentecost

• this outpouring impresses on the soul an indeelible character and produces a growth in the grace of baptism

• it roots the recipient more deeply in divine sonship, binds him more firmly to christ and to the church and reinvigorates the gifts of the holy spirit in his soul

• it gives a special strength to witness to the christian faith

Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist

• “And  when  He  had  taken  some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”

Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist

• completes the christian initiaiton

• its the very sacrifce of the body and blood of the lord jesus which he instituted to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until his return in glory

Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist

• thus he entrusted to his church this memorial of his death and resurrection

• the eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the peopl of God by which the church kept in being

• its the culmination both of god’s action sanctifying the world in christ and of the worship men offer to christ and through him to the father in the holyspirti

Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist

• It Is The Source And Summit Of Christian Life

  • the holy sacrifice

  • most blessed sacrament

  • holly communion 

  • Holy mass (misa)

It Is The Source And Summit Of Christian Life

• the holy sacrifice

• most blessed sacrament

• holly communion 

• Holy mass (misa)

Who can receive Holy Communion?

• Baptized believers in Communion with the Catholic Church

• and devoid of Mortal Sin

• St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience

  • Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion.

St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience

who urges us that anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion.

Eucharist: Matter

Bread & wine

Bread & wine

• the bread must be only wheat

• the wine must be natural from the fruit of the vine

Eucharist: Form

• This My Body which will be given up for you. Do this in memory of Me Take this, all of you, and drink from it: this is the cup of my Blood, the Blood of the New and Everlasting Covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven. Do this in memory of me

Eucharist: Minister

• Validly ordained Priest (bishop) who acts in the person of Christ the Head in the name of the Church.

Transubstatiation

• means the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of the whole substance of wine into the substance of his Blood. 

Transubstatiation

• This change is brought about in the eucharistic prayer through the efficacy of the word of Christ and by the action of the Holy Spirit.

• However, the outward characteristics of bread and wine, the “eucharistic species”, remain unaltered.

Holy Communion

• “But the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice is wholly directed toward the intimate union of the faithful with Christ through communion. 

• To receive communion is to receive Christ who has offered himself for us.”

Effects of the Eucharist

• increases our union with christ and his church

• nourishment of spiritual life

• medicine of immortality

Effects of the Eucharist

• seperation from sin, removl of venial sin

• spiritual stregth

• union of the body into one

• strengthens us in charity

Adoration of the Holy Spirit

• The Catholic Church has always given, and continues to give, the sacrament of the Eucharist the worship of adoration—not only during Mass, but also outside of it. The Church reverently preserves the consecrated hosts, solemnly exposes them for the veneration of the faithful, and carries them in procession.

  • The Church treats the Eucharist with the highest respect and devotion, both during and outside of Mass, because it believes Christ is truly present in it.

Adoration of the Holy Spirit

Whenever I go to the chapel, I put myself in the presence of our good Lord, and I say to him, ‘Lord, I am here.Tell me what you would have me to do’ . . . And then, I tell God everything that is in my heart.I tell him about my pains and my joys, and then I listen.If you listen, God will also speak to you, for with the good Lord, you have to both speak and listen.God always speaks to you when you approach him plainly and simply.”–St. Catherine Labouré